How much does a B2B website cost?
In 2026, a B2B website costs $17 to $160 a month on a DIY builder plus your time, $32,000 to $48,000 for an average agency build plus a monthly retainer, or $90,000-plus a year to staff properly in-house. The biggest cost is always the same: the ongoing work of improving it.
No credit card · Try in minutes
Every path to a B2B website has two price tags: the one on the pricing page, and the real one. Here's both, for every option, with sources. The pattern to watch: the platform is never the expensive part. The work is.
The five paths
1. DIY builders: $17 to $160 a month, plus your evenings
Wix runs $17 to $159 a month, Squarespace $16 to $99, Webflow $15 to $25 before seats and add-ons (all 2026 list prices). Then the real bill: apps and add-ons that reviewers note can double the monthly cost, and the unpriced part, someone on your team building and maintaining the site. For a founder, that's the most expensive hour in the company doing template work.
2. An agency: $32,000 to $48,000, then it starts again
The average B2B agency build runs $32,000 to $48,000 (Rick Whittington Consulting, 2026), takes two to six months, and is followed by a retainer of $500 to $10,000 a month, mostly covering upkeep. Then, after about two and a half years, the site has decayed enough to rebuild, and the cycle repeats (why that cycle fails).
Why that cycle fails3. In-house: a salary, at least
Doing it properly means someone owns it: a web marketing manager runs $90,000 to $140,000 a year in the US (ZipRecruiter and Glassdoor, 2026), plus design, development, and SEO support. Most B2B companies never staff this, which is why the website runs on spare time, and produces accordingly.
4. WordPress: free software, four invoices
The software costs nothing. A business site on it costs plenty: managed hosting at $20 to $50 a month, a premium plugin stack at $600 to $1,800 a year, a maintenance retainer at $300 to $600 a month for a site that matters (Codeable, 2026), and developer hours at $50 to $250 for everything else. (Full breakdown.)
Full breakdown5. A self-improving platform: one subscription, work included
The new option prices differently because it includes the part everything else leaves out: the improving. A self-improving website platform builds the site, hosts it, measures it, and ships improvements every week, in one subscription. No seats, no add-ons, no retainer, no rebuild fund. Optise starts free, so you can see it work before you pay.
The self-improving websiteThe cost nobody puts in the comparison
Whatever you pay, the most expensive website is the one that doesn't produce. A site that quietly stops generating leads costs more per month than any option above; it's invisible because it never sends an invoice (why websites stop producing). Price the options by what they produce, not what they charge.
Free to start. No credit card. Try in minutes.
Frequently asked questions
On a DIY builder, expect $50 to $300 a month once apps, email, and add-ons stack up, plus the hours someone spends running it. With an agency, the retainer alone runs $500 to $10,000 a month after a $32,000-plus build. A self-improving platform like Optise is one subscription with the work included.
Over three years they often cost the same: an agency build plus retainer roughly matches a part-time hire plus tools. Both spend most of the money on upkeep rather than improvement. The cheaper question is what produces more leads per dollar, and that favours whichever option improves the website continuously.
Because pricing pages show the platform, and websites are mostly work: design, content, maintenance, search visibility, updates. Every model except the self-improving platform prices the work separately, in seats, add-ons, retainers, or your team's hours.
Optise is one subscription that includes the website, hosting, analytics, and the weekly improvements themselves, with nothing gated or metered. It's free to start, no credit card, so you can see the platform work on your website before paying.